DPRK says it will conduct nuclear warhead test “soon”

CCTV News

Top leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Jong Un on Tuesday said his country will soon conduct a nuclear warhead explosion test and a test launch of ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads, according to the country’s official KCNA news agency.

Kim made the announcement as he supervised a successful simulated test of a ballistic missile atmospheric re-entry. The report comes amid heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula as South Korean and U.S. troops stage annual military exercises that Seoul has described as the largest ever.

The agency says that the simulation was conducted to “verify the thermodynamic structural stability of newly-developed heat-resisting materials under the high pressure and thermal flow caused by aerodynamic heating” when a ballistic rocket re-enters the atmosphere.

Kim said that acquiring the practice could strengthen the country’s defense capability and munition industry.

Tensions have been heightened in the Korean Peninsula as the DPRK has made a series of bold military moves and threats.

On Monday, the DPRK claimed it could “burn Manhattan down to ashes” by firing a hydrogen bomb into the heart of the city on an intercontinental ballistic missile.

The DPRK on March 10 fired two short-range ballistic missiles into its eastern waters in reaction to the largest-ever joint military drills being held by South Korea and the United States. The ballistic missile launch was also seen as a response to the “harshest” sanctions enforced by the U.N. in decades.

On March 3, just one day after the U.N. resolution on the DPRK passed, Pyongyang reportedly launched missiles that coincided with an army inspection led by Kim. It also claimed to have tested a hydrogen bomb and fired a satellite into orbit in January.

South Korea and the U.S. have been carrying out military exercises which will take eight weeks to complete involving 300,000 South Korean troops and at least 17,000 from the United States.